Why CCUS
Some people have the impression that the uses and benefits of CCUS are limited to the natural gas and oil sector. However, it’s a climate change mitigation technology with a broad range of applications for capturing, using and storing CO2. There are several high carbon-emitting industries in Canada—such as transportation, agriculture, oil and gas, steel, pulp and paper, power generation, and others—that need clean technology to be able to address emissions related to their operations. The greatest opportunity within Canada where CCUS can be deployed is to reduce emissions in power generation and other industrial sectors.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the generation of electrical power from fossil fuels accounts for the largest carbon emissions globally at almost 40 per cent. As demand for power increases, fossil fuels will continue to provide the majority of the world’s electricity for decades to come, even with the rise of renewable energy sources. The IEA reports that CCUS is critical to transitioning to clean energy and can also support the decarbonization of other parts of the energy system, such as industry, trucks and ships.
Industrial sectors are challenging to decarbonize low-carbon technologies for many processes are still under development or are too costly to deploy at large, industrial scale. In the industrial sector, production of materials such as cement, steel and chemicals will likely need CCUS to fully decarbonize in the near-term because other decarbonization approaches do not exist or a complete transition to renewables is simply not feasible.
In addition to being permanently and safely stored underground, use of captured CO2 to create numerous beneficial, non-energy-related products is growing. Historically, CO2 has been used primarily in the fertilizer industry, the beverage industry, and for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). New uses such as producing CO2-based synthetic fuels, chemicals and building materials (such as concrete) are gaining momentum.
There are other tools, such as electricity-generation from renewable sources, that support the same decarbonized objective. However, renewables are still emerging and can’t yet fulfill the energy demand that industry requires. On the other hand, CCUS is a mature, ready-to-implement technology that is ideal for reducing emissions in these hard-to-abate industries.
The Example of Cement Production
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that CCUS is the only mitigation technology able to tackle emissions in certain hard-to-abate sectors, including cement-making, steel, chemicals, fertilizers and plastics. The example below illustrates how the cement industry would significantly benefit from the use of CCUS technology.
To build a modest-sized skyscraper, approximately 6,000 tonnes of cement is required. Making the cement for this building emits about 4,600 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
That’s equivalent to emissions from driving a car for 19.3 million km, which would be approximately 2,500 car trips driving from coast to coast across Canada!
Because the processes involved in making cement emit large volumes of carbon, CCUS is an ideal way to reduce this sector’s emissions at the source of production.
Alberta’s Place in CCUS
Alberta is primed to be at the forefront of the growing CCUS sector. Many of the processes, skills and deep storage sites used in CCUS align with oil and gas, so this energy-experienced province is well-positioned in that respect. Alberta also has the geological capacity to store massive amounts of CO2 underground, is seeing significant investment in the development of new CCUS technologies, and already has a network of CCUS facilities and organizations.
In addition, the Government of Canada is committed to advancing CCUS technology and providing policies and funding to facilitate its development and deployment. This includes a new CCUS investment tax credit that is being implemented. The Government will also continue efforts to increase coordination between public and private sectors to eliminate regulatory barriers and facilitate market growth of the sector.
CCUS has emerged as a leading technology to significantly and efficiently reduce carbon for a range of sectors across Canada and the world. It is undoubtably an essential tool on the journey to net-zero, and Alberta is at the centre of CCUS research, development, and commercial scale application.